Many more people experience World Heritage online than in person. While that further elevates the status of iconic sites like the Sydney Opera House, it has other more complicated consequences too.
If local government is to deliver affordable housing, state and federal governments must assist. Even councils as powerful and well resourced as the City of Sydney cannot do it by themselves.
After Cyclone Tracy, you’d expect Darwin of all cities to be ready for the next one. But as the clean-up after Cyclone Marcus continues, it’s clear more must be done to increase the city’s resilience.
Artificial islands that are now mushrooming across the ocean are regarded as ‘engineering marvels’. But, little attention is paid to how these human-made structures affect sea life.
Preparations for next month’s Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast are pushing homeless people out of town, and out of the state. Sadly, that’s not unusual for events of this sort.
Changes under Queensland’s recently instituted Planning Act give councils much more leeway in their decision-making, which makes it harder for appeals against decisions to succeed.
Crime is way down in one Flint, Michigan, neighborhood, where locals have teamed up to revamp neglected public spaces. Here, why ‘busy streets’ can prevent violence and save cities money.
Third places are shared spaces where people can informally socialise. As a potential antidote to the modern scourge of loneliness, it’s worth asking what makes the best of these places tick.
The NDIS is allowing for Specialist Disability Accommodation for 28,000 people, with 17,500 already in such housing. The potential demand for this life-changing supported housing is even greater.
New analysis reveals just how little is spent on cycling and walking projects around Australia. No state’s spending on cycling is more than 1.5% of its road funding.
Governments are using Big Data to design improvements and upgrades of cities. But ethical questions need to be considered, lest we end up jeopardising citizens’ privacy or deepen social inequalities.
A decade after the launch of a national campaign to reduce homelessness, the latest figures show Australia is going backwards. Research points to problems in the public housing system as a key factor.
Cycling is a low-cost and non-polluting way to make deliveries in congested cities. Slow cyclists should be recognised as good for the economy and environment, not treated like second-class citizens.
Business-as-usual projections assume our four biggest cities must absorb three-quarters of Australia’s population growth over the next 30 years. Might new cities be a better way to deal with it?
The clichés about housing supply and regulatory restraints are distractions from the need to focus on expanding the affordable housing sector to directly meet the needs of low-income households.
The first IPCC conference on cities has highlighted the challenges of reconciling science, urban practices and politics. But it was an important recognition of cities’ leading role in climate action.
The population growth is in the west, but most of the jobs are still in the city centre. Three major development proposals could help reshape Melbourne in ways that help overcome this costly mismatch.
Junfeng Jiao, The University of Texas at Austin and Chris Bischak, The University of Texas at Austin
Even in cities with good public transportation, some areas can be ‘transit deserts,’ where demand exceeds supply. Living in these zones makes it hard to access good jobs, health care and other services.
Perth is looking at recycling all its sewage in the city’s future water supply. But many Australians’ drinking water already contains indirectly recycled treated sewage.